


Up in a Blaze of Glory

by fiftysevenacademics (rapiddescent)



Category: Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare, SHAKESPEARE William - Works
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Eventual Romance, F/M, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Teen Romance, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-13
Updated: 2014-12-13
Packaged: 2018-03-01 08:12:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2765969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rapiddescent/pseuds/fiftysevenacademics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Helping your parents put up Christmas decorations can have unintended consequences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up in a Blaze of Glory

**Author's Note:**

> Written to fill Day 12 prompt: "Lights" for the Shakespeare Advent Event on Tumblr. I've edited and re-written it a bit, and changed the ending slightly.

The silver Land Rover screeches into the driveway of a palatial house with beige stucco walls and red tile roof, and the door flies open almost before the engine has even stopped running. A small, slender woman in black yoga pants and a beige tank top hurtles out the door, blonde highlights bouncing along in their stylish, though slightly mussed, coiffure. She flies up the walkway, her toned glutes and abs not jiggling one bit, to the front door holding a water bottle and keys in one hand, reaching for the doorknob with the other about three steps before she gets there. She throws her keys onto a small table in the entry with a clatter. Her face is flushed, and she bursts with energy, but it’s not from the yoga class she just attended.

“CAPULET!" she shouts toward the living room, and hearing no reply, repeats, louder, longer, up the stairs: “CAAAAPUUUULEEEETT!!!”

“WHERE ARE YOU? COME HERE!” she continues, running up the stairs and into her bedroom like a hurricane. Her husband sits in an armchair with a cup of coffee on the windowsill and his laptop open. He’s still in his pajamas, and his brown hair, uncombed, but he’s got his glasses and a look on his face that means he’s doing work, and headphones explain why he hasn’t heard her calling him. He pulls them off and looks up at her.

“How was the gym, honey?” He expects a routine answer and holds onto the headphones so he can quickly slip them back on and get back to work. She completely ignores his question.

“They’ve already started.”

“What? Who’s started what?”

“The Montagues! I saw him and his nasty son on the roof, and she was on the lawn directing them.”

“You’re kidding! So soon?”

“Yes! I told you to do it yesterday. They’ve already got half their Christmas lights up.”

Capulet closes his laptop and stands up, taking the coffee cup and draining it.

“I’ll get dressed.”

Lady Capulet doesn’t bother changing, just throws on a light hoodie, stomps down the hallway, and bangs on a door, thinking, “It’s bad enough that bitch beat me for Junior League president, but I’ll be damned if I’m gonna let her beat me with the Christmas lights, too.”

Ever since Montague got passed over for the big promotion that Capulet got instead, his wife has challenged Lady Capulet’s leadership of everything from school cupcake sales to Junior League charity drives. The families have channeled their rivalry into lavish Christmas displays that become more elaborate each year.

“Juliet! Juliet, get out here right now! I need you to help me haul out the Christmas lights while your father’s getting dressed.”

There’s no answer at Juliet’s door, so Lady Capulet bursts in and shakes the inert lump under the covers.

“Fuck, Mom! Stop! I’m trying to sleep.” Juliet’s soft brown hair disappears back under the comforter.

“Don’t talk to me like that, Juliet, and get up now. It’s almost noon and you have to help me.” She pulls the blanket off and shakes her daughter hard. “GET UP! NOW!”

“OK, OK, Mom. Stop yelling.” Juliet’s sitting up, and Lady Capulet has her by the arm, pulling her out of bed. She tosses some leggings and a t-shirt from a pile on the floor on the bed. “Here.”

“Those are dirty. Gross.”

“Well, do your laundry more often, then. Just put them on and get down to the garage in five minutes.”

Juliet, her face still heavy with sleep, ignores her mother and starts swiping at her phone.

“GET OFF TUMBLR, GET DRESSED, AND INTO THE GARAGE IN FIVE MINUTES OR YOU’RE GROUNDED!”

“God, Mom! Stop yelling already. This is about the lights, isn’t it.”

Lady Capulet has already begun to leave the room and doesn’t reply.

“Oh my God it _is_ about the lights! I can _not_ believe you’re making me do this right now just because of the Light Situation. Every damned year we go through this.”

Lady Capulet’s out the door and halfway down the hall by the time Juliet finishes speaking, though, and Capulet is already in the garage, pulling down boxes, when she arrives. She joins him, and like a well-oiled machine, they drag box after box of lights, cords, and decorations onto the lawn. Juliet saunters in at the end.

"How nice of you to join us," Lady Capulet sneers. Juliet sticks her tongue out and squinches her eyes back.

"I brought these." She holds up a small pair of binoculars her parents bought her for a sixth grade nature field trip.

"Oh, thank God. We couldn’t possibly do this without binoculars," says a displeased Lady Capulet.

Juliet follows her parents outside and helps her dad secure the ladder against the roof, then clambers up after him. Her dad starts assembling a giant Christmas tree made of lights. Juliet looks toward the Montague’s house through her binoculars.

"This’ll go faster if you help," he says.

"Dad! Check this out!"

Capulet looks through the glass. Montague and Romeo are assembling an enormous, ten-foot tall sleigh, complete with Santa and eight reindeer, suspended by poles so they appear to be taking off. The entire contraption is completely covered in tiny white lights.

"No way we can outdo that, can we, Dad."

Capulet chuckles.

”Your mom’s got something up her sleeve. Just wait till UPS comes today.”

He returns to his task and Juliet continues to watch the Montagues on their roof. Romeo wears skinny jeans, a snug t-shirt, and Converse. His black hair hangs in rough, messy layers over his broad cheekbones. Either he’s got a wisp of a beard, or he’s wiped a dirty hand on his cheek; she can’t tell for sure at this distance. He had been a chubby, serious kid when they were in Kindergarten together, but they’ve gone to separate schools since first grade and he’s grown into the lithe, taut frame of a lacrosse player now.

"Leonine," she thinks, using an SAT word as she watches him move around the roof. They used to play house, and chase each other on the playground. Sometimes he teased her, and she and her friends would do something to embarrass him in revenge. But on Valentine’s Day he gave her the prettiest card and secretly, that made her happy. 

"Are you going to help?" Capulet’s almost done with the tree.

"Uh huh," she mumbles, still looking through the glasses. "Weird that I never see him. We live in the same neighborhood. We must have learned to avoid each other from our parents," she thinks.

All she knows about Romeo comes from his friend, Mercutio, who goes to her school and was her lab partner in chemistry last year. Mercutio’s a long-haired, blonde surfer dude who smokes weed and drinks. She doesn’t know what he has in common with the jocks, but he hangs around with them anyway. He mentioned Romeo once, and when she said she kind of knew him, he said Romeo was chill, with a knowing nod of his head.

"Oh," Juliet replied, not sure what the nod meant, or if he meant anything at all, and not very curious to find out, either. Mercutio took that as a sign of interest in _him_ and asked her out, even though he knew she was not allowed to date.

She flat-out giggled and said, “No.” Mercutio was neither angry nor disappointed. He just laughed, “right on”, and things went on as usual. They did not talk about Romeo again.

She and her dad work through the afternoon, assembling decorations and stringing lights that Lady Capulet passes up to them, following directions she shouts from the lawn: “A little more to the left!”; “You missed a spot over there!”; “There’s too many in that one spot!”. Lady Capulet also strings lights all around the windows and under the eaves, until the entire house, from top to bottom, is outlined in or covered with lights. Inflatable Santas and snowmen, lighted, robotic deer, elves, gnomes and glittering presents festoon the front yard. It is almost 4:00 when the UPS truck arrives and Lady Capulet runs toward it with a squeal of delight.

She returns with an huge cardboard box.

"Capulet! It’s here. Come down and help me open it. I can’t wait to get it set up."

Juliet’s curiosity about their rivals at the other end of the block outweighs her interest in the box. She picks up the binoculars and watches Romeo bending, lifting, hammering, imagining she can see his biceps pulling his arms around like steel cables, something that is not actually possible at her puny binoculars' resolution, but which she wants to be true.

When she looks down, her mother and father are assembling the biggest rooftop decoration she has ever seen: Santa and two elves, assembling a toy while Mrs. Claus brought them mugs of a hot beverage. It must stand at least ten feet tall and extend for five or six yards and is, like the Montague’s, completely covered in lights.

"I bet it’s even from the same company," thinks Juliet in disgust.

Capulet climbs back onto the roof, and Juliet helps him retrieve the sections as Lady Capulet offers them up. It’s almost dark by the time they finally finish screwing everything in place and wearily trudge down the ladder. Juliet doesn’t know if the Montagues have also finished their decorations, but no lights have come on at their house. If they can just get their lights on first, her parents will be pleased.

In spite of herself, Juliet feels excited, and almost asks if she can be the one to flip on the switch, but decides to roll her eyes to say “yeah, whatever”, and go upstairs to her room instead. The last light fades from the palm trees, and through the window she can barely discern the silhouette of the distant mountains, that ago long lost the pink luster of sunset. She takes out her binoculars, and points them in the Montague’s direction. If their lights come on, she’ll be sure to see them.

"OK, I’m lighting them now," she hears her mother yell. Wham! Their house goes up in a blaze of glory. And, so does the Montague’s. The lights of two small cities glow on either end of the neighborhood for a few seconds, then she hears a crackle, and everything goes dark. Streetlights, porch lights, all the windows everywhere in the neighborhood are snuffed out and the entire gated community of Verona lies at the mercy of the moon and stars.

It takes a couple of hours to get the electricity back, and her parents have to pay a fine and promise not to run their lights until they have been inspected by experts from the electric company and the fire department. Juliet finds some relief from her mortification in the fact that the electric company person says she told the same things to the Montagues.

She lies in bed, reading a book by candlelight, and wondering if Romeo is doing the same thing. Her thoughts wander to her parents' annual Christmas party, scheduled for the following weekend. In her mind’s eye, she sees Romeo smile at her across the crowded room. She can’t invite him, but maybe if she invites Mercutio, he'll find a way to crash it.


End file.
